Plasm is series
of interactive art installations investigating novel methods of human
interaction with artificial life forms. This series is the result of ongoing
artistic collaboration between Rob Myers and Peter Broadwell, with other
members of the Plasmatics team. The initial piece, Plasm: A Fish Sample,
was proposed and installed in 1985; subsequent installations in the series
have followed every few years.

Plasm: In the
Breeze. Swinging out over a synthesized creek, viewers stir up the
artificial life forms therein. Engaging kinesthetic immersion takes place
within themed surroundings, where two rope swings track the participants'
position using linear position sensors mounted at the pivot point, 20'
overhead.

Plasm: Not a Crime.
Participants create and share their images securely, without resorting
to illegal encryption, in a visual encounter with chaffing and winnowing.
Each image submitted is shattered into thousands of miniscule tagged packets
and churned out into the transmission flow of billions of internet packets.
A recovery key card is printed for each submitted image. At remote retrieval
stations, the key card is optically scanned for the ID used to winnow
matching packets out of the passing internet flow, reassembling the secret
image from the chaotic flux.

Plasm:
A Country Walk. A custom force-feedback leash is used to walk a virtual
dog down an endlessly unfolding country lane. The simulation is driven by
the 3DO game console's low-cost rendering hardware, with rear-screen projection
filling the participant's view.

Plasm: Above the
Drome. Three networked skyboards equip visitors to surf freely throughout
a shared virtual space. Each fiberglass skyboard is a custom full-body
input device, with force-sensing resistors driving the flight simulation
for the occupant's on-screen avatar. A large rear-screen projection in
front of each skyboard renders the cumulative adventures of all three
surfers in a common, infinitely wrapping space, as they dive below the
waves to slalom through the fishes, or soar overhead to trail confetti
across the sky.

Plasm: A Nano
Sample. A large, empty room becomes the portal into an alternate
universe, explored via two monitors pushed about on rolling stands. When
viewed through the screen of each exploratory vehicle, clouds of passive
brass flakes are swirled and grasped by unseen winds flowing through the
space, while being herded and chipped off by the intrusive observation
vehicles. A variety of different object systems (flying carpet, chaotic
vortex, growing plant structures) compete to populate themselves with
the shared inventory of flakes, snatched on the fly by conflicting attractors.
Input tracking is performed by optical detection of infrared LCDs mounted
on the rolling monitor stands.

Plasm: A Fish
Sample. The initial installation in the Plasm series, this piece
was inspired by Allen Kay's talk on artificial life forms and simulated
ecologies at SIGGRAPH the preceding year. A
real-world living room setting, complete with sofa, coffee table, potted
palm, and fishing magazines, features a virtual aquarium populated with
two species of artificial life forms. An object-based behavior system
controls reproduction, predation, and a host of other unexpected activities.